Pop culture etymologies

This 1944 movie gave its name to a psychological tactic

We are used to thinking that the words we use daily are derived from Latin or Greek words used centuries ago, or that great authors like Shakespeare coined them. Sometimes, though, these everyday terms have been in use for just a few decades, or are the product of a children’s book or a cartoon, and we are none the wiser. Let’s have a look at 11 words that were first used or popularized in books and movies.

In 2022, ‘gaslighting’ was chosen as the word of the year by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, describing the manipulative technique of making someone question their memories, perceptions, and even their reality. While the term is now used for a psychological manipulation, its name comes from a literal gaslight.

In the 1944 movie Gaslight, adapted from a play, a man slowly convinces his wife that she’s going insane to commit her to an asylum. One of his tactics consists of dimming the gas lights in the house while insisting she is imagining the light changes. Despite the term originating in 1944, it only became widely used in the 2010s.

In the 21st century, paparazzi are an annoying but common occurrence for anyone famous, but did you know that their name comes from a 1960s Italian classic film? Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita follows Marcello Rubini, a celebrity journalist, across seven days in Rome.

Rubini is accompanied by the photographer Paparazzo, modelled after scandal-hunting Roman photographers, a name the director chose because it reminded him of an annoying, quick-moving insect. The use of the name as a common term for celebrity photographers was popularized in English by Time magazine shortly after the movie.

Robots are not an oddity in the 21st century and are a common occurrence in movies, books, and other types of media. But the term ‘robot’ has a darker history than many imagine. First used in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Czech writer Karel Čapek, it was used to describe bio-engineered humans—closer to what we would now call androids—, mass-produced to serve as workers.

Čapek used the Czech word robota, meaning ‘serfdom’, ‘hard work’, and sometimes interpreted as ‘slave’, to name these human-like beings that were efficient, but lacked emotions, critical thinking, and self-preservation instincts, and were thus easier to exploit. The term entered the English language in the late 1930s and later evolved into the idea of a highly advanced machine.

Did you know that the name of this popular search engine is derived from a mathematical term? A ‘googol’ describes a 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, and the founders of Google chose the name —with a slightly different spelling— to reflect the vast amount of information the search engine would make available.

But while the verb form ‘to Google’ was initially used by founder Larry Page in 1998, it only became popular in 2002, thanks to the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where in S07, E04, Willow asks Buffy, "Have you googled her yet?" Google has tried to discourage this use of the term, but what can you do against the power of a cult series?

No one really knows where the term ‘nerd’ originated, but it is widely accepted that it’s a variation of ‘nert’ or ‘nut’, both meaning a stupid or crazy person. It first appeared in print in the 1950s book If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss, where it is used as the name of a small creature.

By that point, the term became popular as a derogatory way to describe someone brainy or socially inept. However, its later use in sitcoms and films in association with intellectualism and a passion for technology has contributed to lessening the negative connotations of the word.

When Hormel Foods introduced SPAM to the market in 1937, they never imagined it would become the international word for junk emails. The brand name, an abbreviation of ‘spiced ham’, eventually became synonymous with luncheon meat and was featured in a humorous sketch of the BBC comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

The sketch features a bar where every dish includes SPAM, which prompts a group of Viking patrons to shout "spam, spam" each time the waitress reads out the menu. The term was then adopted to describe repetitive, unwanted internet messages, and it is now instantly associated with commercial ads and repetitive messages.

Now a common way to take responsibility for something or to admit a fault, this phrase originated in the world of basketball in the 1970s to own an error and keep the game moving. Golden State Warriors’ Manute Bol is commonly credited with popularizing its use in the basketball context, but its spreading to other contexts came through the rom-com classic Clueless.

This 90s reimagining of a Jane Austen novel popularized several San Fernando Valley slang words and phrases through its main character, Cher, and her use of "Oops! My bad" during a driving lesson is probably one of the most iconic Clueless quotes.

We now understand the term ‘nimrod’ as ‘fool’ or ‘klutz’, but its original use was quite different. The Bible describes King Nimrod, one of Noah’s descendants, as a mighty hunter, but the name also carries the meaning of ‘rebellious’ and ‘tyrant’, so across history, ‘nimrod’ has been used to refer to both tyrants and good hunters.

How did it come to mean fool? It is all Bugs Bunny’s fault. In a 1948 Looney Tunes episode, Bugs Bunny mockingly calls Elmer Fudd a nimrod, implying that he is a pathetic hunter. Maybe the audience failed to pick up the biblical reference or the sarcasm, but that was the turning point of ‘nimrod’ from hunter to fool.

J.R.R. Tolkien coined many terms, but we bet you didn’t know he was the mind behind the use of ‘tween’ as preadolescent. While he did not invent the term itself —this shortened version of ‘between’ already existed— he contributed to its association with the stage between childhood and coming of age.

In The Lord of the Rings, ‘tween’ is used to describe hobbits in their twenties, often irresponsible and reckless, no longer children, but still not fully adults until they are 33 years old. As hobbits live longer than humans, this stage is equivalent to preteens and teenagers. After the term was popularized in English, it became synonymous with children in the in-between stage before adolescence.

If you ever thought that ‘pandemonium’ might be related to ‘demon’, you were a hundred percent right. A combination of the Greek pan (‘all’) and the Latin daemonium (‘demon’ or ‘evil spirit’), the word first appeared in John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). In the poem, the angels fallen from Heaven create a palace in Hell, called Pandemonium or ‘place of all the demons’.

How did its meaning shift to chaos and mayhem? A few decades after Milton coined it, the term became common to describe places of chaos and uproar, eventually being associated with the chaos itself.

Have you ever heard the term ‘malapropism’? It is often used to describe the incorrect use of a word in place of another that sounds similar, such as confusing ‘amphibious’ with ‘ambidextrous’. Though this is a common speech mistake in any language, its English name comes from the 1775 play The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

In the play, the character of Mrs. Malaprop (from the French mal à propos, ‘poorly placed’) frequently uses the incorrect but similar-sounding word, creating confusion and failing to properly communicate. Though the term ‘dogberryism’ —in reference to a Shakespearean character— is sometimes used, ‘malapropism’ has undoubtedly become the most common name for this mistake.

Facts you didn't know you needed

Is the day longer for your pet? Mind-blowing facts you need to know

Adults often assume they already understand the world, but there’s always something new to surprise us! Did you know that clouds actually have weight? Or that the day is longer for some animals? And that’s just the beginning. From hidden functions of your organs to the true color of the universe, today you’ll learn 10 fascinating facts you probably never thought to ask, but will make you sound impressively smart in your next conversation!

Unlike humans, animals don’t experience a shared "present" in quite the same way. Instead, their sense of time is tied to the rhythms of their own bodies. For very small animals with fast metabolisms like parrots, hamsters, or guinea pigs, time actually seems to pass more slowly. In a sense, they live in slow motion because their faster-working nervous systems allow them to process sensory information at a fast speed.

What if someone commits a crime and tries to blame their identical twin? Have you ever wondered about that? It’s a valid question; after all, identical twins not only look alike, they also share the same DNA. But here’s the surprising part: if investigators check fingerprints, the innocent twin could be cleared. That’s because, despite their nearly identical DNA, twins have unique fingerprints, shaped by subtle genetic and environmental factors in the womb.

You’ve probably spent time lying on the grass, watching clouds drift across the sky. They look light, fluffy, almost like cotton candy, and it’s hard to imagine them as heavy objects. But the truth is surprising: clouds are incredibly heavy. An average cumulus cloud can weigh around 1 million pounds! That impressive weight comes from the billions of tiny water droplets suspended in the air. So, how do they float? It’s because each droplet is extremely small and falls very slowly, while rising warm air currents help keep the cloud suspended above us.

Most of us have a rough image of the world map in our minds. But we have something to tell you: most maps aren’t completely accurate. Because the Earth is a sphere, cartographers have to distort some areas to represent it on a flat surface. On Mercator projection maps, countries near the poles appear much larger than they really are, while countries near the equator look smaller in comparison. For example, Alaska looks about the same size as Brazil, but in reality, Brazil is nearly five times larger!

Most people don’t realize that there’s actually a name for the color of the universe. Strange, right? But it’s true! Astronomers who studied the light from thousands of galaxies discovered that if you blend all the colors from the observable universe, the result is a soft, beige-ish white shade, famously named "Cosmic Latte" in 2002.

With 50 states, there’s no shortage of variety in their names. Almost every letter of the English alphabet appears at least once, except for one: Q, which is completely absent. In addition to this, there’s another surprisingly rare letter: J. While it isn’t entirely missing like Q, it only appears in one state, New Jersey.

Although we don’t notice it, indeed, the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing. This happens because tidal friction, caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull on our oceans, creates a subtle drag on the planet’s spin. As a result, days are getting longer, but very gradually: by only about 1.7 milliseconds per century.

Do you remember your last dream? Whether good or bad, dreams are a constant part of sleep, but not everyone experiences them in the same way. Deaf people who use sign language in their daily lives often communicate through signs in their dreams, too. Meanwhile, blind people tend to have dreams rich in sounds, smells, and tactile sensations, using these other senses to experience the dream world.

We’re used to seeing hippos covered in mud, splashing in water, or barely peeking above the surface. But here’s a surprise: hippos can’t actually swim! That’s right. Because of their huge, heavy bodies, they don’t float or paddle like most animals. Instead, they walk or run along the riverbed.

Can your brain really "eat" itself? Well, close, but not exactly. There’s a process called phagocytosis, carried out by specialized immune cells in the brain known as microglia. These cells engulf and remove debris, dead cells, and other unwanted material. But don’t worry; it’s safe! The mechanisms exist to protect, repair, and maintain your brain.